Team manager Brian Whitesell will be the crew chief this weekend at Dover. Lance McGrew will take over next week on an interim basis for NASCAR’s most popular driver.

“Our performance hasn’t been where it should be,” Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said in a prepared statement announcing the change. “It’s impossible to pin that on any one factor, but a change is the right decision at this point. We have a plan in place, and we’re going to move forward with it.”

The team said Whitesell, who won two of seven races as Jeff Gordon‘s interim crew chief in 1999, and Rex Stump, the team’s lead chassis engineer, will support McGrew on a full-time basis, with team engineer Tom Stewart on the No. 88 pit box to assist with race strategy.

This is good news for Earnhardt’s fans, sponsors, and NASCAR in general. Hopefully we’ll see good results from this, but it may take some time